The data are stark and clear: Despite an improving economy, the gap between black and white homeownership continues to be a wide one. Nationally, the black homeownership rate is 41 percent — nearly unchanged from 50 years ago, when the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in our sector. That compares to the 71 percent of white adults who own a home. The gap is even wider now than it was in 1900, documents a study by Zillow.

Mother's determination to provide a stable home is the foundation for daughter's success


By the time Abigail "Abby" Pogatshnik was just 4 years old, she already had lived in several homes in and around Bismarck, North Dakota. Her mother, Lisa, divorced Abby's father when Abby was just 10 months old. Though she escaped an abusive marriage, Lisa found herself in a new struggle — being a single mom with three young daughters to support.


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